South Florida's loss opens a potential door

Al Behrman/Associated PressSouth Florida QB Matt Grothe's head is in the direction that his Bulls' season is heading ... down.

What looks like impending trouble for South Florida, could signal an opening for a once-dead Rutgers team.

How, you ask? Well after the Bulls stumbled for the second-straight week as a ranked team to an unranked opponent (and the third time that's happened this year), South Florida is in full-fledged free fall mode. They are now 6-3 overall and an astounding 1-3 in the conference. They lost to a guy last night, in Cincinnati QB Tony Pike who still has a broken arm.

Let me repeat that: They got beat by a guy with a broken arm. (Non-throwing arm of course, but that's really just splitting hairs.)

Jim Leavitt's team began last season 6-0 and came into Piscataway ranked second in the nation, but that loss to Rutgers on Oct. 18, began a limp home of 3-3 down to finish the regular season and then they promptly lost their bowl game to Oregon by 35 points.

This is good for Rutgers because should the Scarlet Knights beat Syracuse next weekend, it sets up a showdown in Tampa on Nov. 15 that could greatly enhance Rutgers' bowl chances.

Look, if you're the committee of any one of the Big East tie-in bowls (Gator, International, Meineke Car Care, Sun, PapaJohns.com and St. Petersburg) and you had a choice between a Rutgers team that say, finishes at 7-5 or a South Florida team that would likely be 7-5 ... who would you choose?